Alabama Football: Rugby-Style Punt Killing Tide's Return Game

The "rugby-style punt" is not new to American football, but for the past 10 or 12 years the benefits did not seem to outweigh the cons in most situations.  The 2011 college football season, however, has seen a resurgence of this type of punt.  

Rugby-style punts have been creeping into college football at what appears to be a rate of exponential growth.

 The term "rugby-style" can mean many different things.  Unlike typical American football punting, you can execute the rugby punt in a multitude of different ways.  I'm not a rugby expert, so I cannot break down all the different options.  

The rugby style has been showcased against the Alabama Crimson Tide for the past three weeks.  After punt-returner Marquis Maze returned a punt for 83 yards for a touchdown against Arkansas, Florida went with the rugby style for the entire game the following week.

Vanderbilt and Ole Miss followed suit.  

Maze averaged 80 yards-per-game in punt returns the first four weeks of the season.  The past three weeks, however, against the rugby-style punt, he averaged a mediocre four yards-per-game.  

The real danger is just how deep the Tide can get pinned in their own territory.  When these types of punts are let loose, they seem to make it well into the Tide's red zone, or very close, and there is no chance for a return.  Starting every drive at your own 20-yard line, or deeper, can be a real game-changing scenario.

Furthering the potential for catastrophe is the fact that the punter often first rolls to the outside, giving him better potential for running for the first down.  

Now, with the speed that most SEC teams play at, the rugby-style may be a short-lived fad.  Now that Nick Saban and the Tide have caught onto it, they may use that speed to negate the longer-developing rugby-style punts.  

Until that happens, however, Alabama's punt return game has been thoroughly shut down.  

LSU's punter out of Australia, Brad Wing, is certain to be familiar with these types of punts.  He's not afraid to go against a designed punt either if a run lane is open, as he displayed against Florida this year.  

The Alabama-LSU game is going to be a battle of the defenses, and field position will be more critical than ever.  Every single yard will be precious.  Alabama cannot be expected to win the game if they must drive nearly the full length of the field on every drive.  

Teams may have been taking advantage of the temporary benefits of these silly punts, but come November 5th, Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide should have a solution for it.